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Spring is less than a week away but, before he hits the road, Jack Frost this year has one final, parting prank: ice buildup.

When it melts — and it will — excess water this year could result in some costly damage to your foundation or basement.

“Leaks happen when people neglect to get out there and clear the ice dams off their roofs, or shovel snow away from their foundations,” says home renovation guru Bryan Baeumler in a conversation with Alex Nino Gheciu. “That should be the focus around this time of year.

“After the thaw, of course, there’s plenty more stuff to do around the house.”

Whether you’re looking to avoid a post-thaw flood or get into spring renovation mode, the star of HGTVs Leave it to Bryan who is also featured on Canada’s Handyman Challenge has some advice for you.

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Ihave a cold room that keeps weeping. There is a sump pump with a drain that passes by the front stairs to the garden and a vent to let cold air in. First there was frost on the ceiling, so we weatherproofed the door. Then we insulated the room with a vapour barrier and closed the vent, but there was moisture trapped between the barrier and the insulation. Then we removed the vapour barrier and opened the vent. With last spring’s thaw, I found condensation between the green board and the insulation, and water on the floor. Help.

Jermaine Hao, Toronto

Well Jermaine, you made a classic mistake that a lot of people make. That cold room isn’t designed to be heated — it’s an outdoor space. Between your basement and the cold room, there should be an exterior, weather-tight door to stop the warm air inside your house from getting into that cold room. And that cold room should be vented properly so the cold air can get in there and get out, as well. It’s for storing things that you’d normally store outdoors.

The problem with a lot of cold rooms is they don’t have a weather-proof door on them. So a lot of moist air is getting in there, condensing on the cold, concrete walls. It was a good move to weather-proof the door.

If there’s no heat source in the room, then any insulation or vapour barrier you create won’t matter because without a heat source, it’s not going to retain heat. So you’ve got to have airflow going in there, or properly insulate that room. Then you’ll need a heat source in there — either an electric heater, or have the heat brought in through the house.

It sounds like you tried to make your cold room a warm room without warming it up. And that’s where you got into problems.

We are looking for an outdoor railing for a senior. Can you direct us? Home depot, Canadian Tire, Rona etc. do not appear to have this appliance.

Jenny B.

Jenny, if you’re looking for an outdoor railing for stairs or a walkway, typically they’re more of a commercial product. A lot of stores like Lowe’s have shower handles that may work for you, or a metal railing system for an exterior fence.

But if you’re looking for a railing for a wheelchair ramp, you may want to look at a custom steel manufacturer who could actually produce a specific railing for your needs.

If you have a high water table, what is the best way to prepare a new house to try to alleviate water from inside the foundation, prior to pouring the concrete floor? Also, any greater prep work necessary on the outside?

Rob B., Fonthill

Well Rob, if you haven’t poured the concrete pad yet, the only way to tilt the water table is to have a soil engineer check it. You have to measure the water table in that area. It’s pretty typical in a new home for there to be water in the foundation that needs to be pumped out. The best thing to do is find the lowest part of the basement, dig a hole, get a high-pressure pump and pump all the water out of the foundation. Then see what the flow rate is and how fast that water’s coming back inside. You can have a soil engineer run a test to make sure.

As far as waterproofing the area around the house, you want to make sure you pour your concrete pad above the level of the water table. But you’ll have to get an engineer to do a report on that. Essentially, you’re going to want to get the water out of there. Dig a pit, get a trash pump in there and pump it out. That’s the only way to do it.

We have a 1,780+ sq.-ft. condo plus wrap-around balcony, by the lake in Ajax. Our unit is on the first floor, about a half-storey above ground, with exposure in every direction. We find the floor cold, as we are over the underground garage. Your previous mention of a DRIcore product sounds like it could be a solution to our problem. We are trying to raise the temperature by a few degrees, which we presently accomplish using a small infra-red heater — a waste of energy. Would this be a meaningful test, in one room, before doing the whole condo?

Frank B., Ajax

Definitely. I’m going to assume you’re living on a concrete flat-floor above a parking garage and are having some cold come through. You could look at installing floor heating, like a Warmup heating cable, which would go down on the concrete floor. Self-leveling cement or some sort of scratch coat could be put over top of it. And on top of that you could put down a laminate floor or tile.

The other option, on a concrete floor, would be using a DRIcore floor. This will give it the feeling of wood flooring and create a thermal break between the concrete and the floor you’re walking on. You could choose one room to put down the DRIcore floor and monitor it to see what difference it makes. Just that thermal break will certainly raise the temperature in the house.

We have a two-part window on the main floor living room, at the front of the house. It’s a fixed vinyl window with a half-moon, wood-framed window on top. The half-moon window sits between the first and second floors, at floor-joist level. It’s single glass, with a design inside. The problem is the half-window has turned black on the inside. Contractors have stated that the heat on the inside has no way to escape, causing the window to overheat and turning it black. Can you suggest a solution?

I. Shariff, Toronto

I would suggest talking to another contractor, because I’ve never heard of that happening. If it’s possible for a window to overheat to the point that it’s going to turn black, your house would probably spontaneously combust.

If I were you, I’d talk to a window professional. We work with Jeld-Wen windows. You can go into the millwork section at Lowe’s and talk to a professional about them.

Typically, windows in the joist cavity space or up into an attic don’t have much of a view. Sometimes when they’re installed, the windows themselves are blacked out because you don’t actually want to see through the window, you just want to see the shape of it. So it may actually be black on purpose. But either way, it’s certainly not overheating, because your house would burn down. Talk to a contractor who actually knows something about windows.

Bryan Baeumler appears twice a month in New in Homes & Condos. He’s the host of Leave it to Bryan, Mondays at 10 p.m. and co-stars in Canada’s Handyman Challenge, both on HGTV Canada. Send your home repair questions for Bryan to Newhomes@thestar.ca with “Bryan” in the subject line. Contact him at baeumler.ca, on Facebook or Twitter @Bryan_Baeumler.

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